In digital imaging systems, color management is the controlled conversion between the color representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printers, offset presses, corresponding media, and the like. One primary goal of a color management system is to effectively deal with colors that cannot be reproduced on a target marking device. Gamut mapping algorithms map received color values of an input image to the target gamut of a color output device such that the rendered output colors remain visually consistent with the original image. There is no common method for this process. Performance often depends on the capability of the color mapping methods employed in the color management system.
Color management systems utilize various gamut mapping methods to achieve desired color mapping results. Such systems give experienced users a greater degree of control of the gamut mapping behavior. Color mapping functions adjust the numerical color values that are sent to, or received from, different image output devices so that the perceived colors they produce remain consistent. Since different devices often don't have the exact same color gamut, their colors need rearrangement. This is particular troublesome near the borders of the gamut where colors need to be shifted further to regions inside the boundary surface of the gamut as colors at the gamut boundary may not be accurately represented on the output device and thus would be clipped. For instance, attempts to render a mostly saturated blue from a monitor to a typical output CMYK printer will likely fail because the paper blue will simply not be as saturated as produced by the display. Consequently, the rendered output print of the source image may not look like quite what had been displayed on the color monitor. Compression mapping functions are employed which shift color points at or near a boundary surface of the gamut to a point further within the gamut to avoid the introduction of artifacts.
Accordingly, what is needed are increasingly sophisticated systems and method for performing compression mapping in a color management system.